Pub2 2021 Issue1

KyTrucking.net 21 History In 1954, the American Trucking Associations Foundation was founded with support from trucking industry suppliers seeking sustainable industry promotional image campaigns. Over time, as the Foundation engaged in research to provide the data and statistics to populate the industry’s message of essentiality, its focus shifted more to research and analysis thereafter. The group quickly created a vast portfolio of government contract research on a variety of trucking industry topics available to all industry stake holders. The Foundation grew and eventually created a network of regional offices staffed to provide research support to the state trucking associations (STAs), which used its assets and campaigns to lobby local and state agencies and policymakers. In the late 1990s, following the appointment of former Roadway Corp. CEO Mike Wickham as Chairman of the Foundation, a group of industry shareholders and thought leaders convened to crystallize the Foundation’s mission. That focus group posed the question, “If there was no ATA Foundation, and we were tasked with creating one, what would it look like?” Group members met regularly for nearly two years to plot a new path, and the result was a reorganization of the ATA Foundation into ATRI in 2001 — this time as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (before that, the Foundation had been a 501(c)(6). According to Brewster, the distinction better reflected the group’s mission of education and research rather than lobbying and industry promotion. She explains that the change also created distance and independence from the American Trucking Associations, which she believes adds more credibility to ATRI’s research. Meanwhile, shortly after the reorganization in 2001, Brewster was tapped to lead the group after more than a decade of rising through the ranks successfully managing key projects and initiatives. Today, ATRI is a standalone organization with bylaws and a Board of Directors comprised of industry CEOs and other stakeholders. The research it undertakes on behalf of the trucking industry is identified as a priority by the Research Advisory Committee (RAC), which is composed of representatives from motor carriers, industry suppliers, driver groups, law enforcement, government and academia who value the importance of sound science to bring forth positive and substantive change and growth to a complex industry. The RAC is charged with annually developing the trucking industry’s top research priorities. Policy Via Research Due to its leadership structure, ATRI is blessed with a variety of opinions and perspectives coming from all facets of the industry — and even a few from regulatory agencies and government officials. “When we have a RAC meeting, it’s fascinating to hear the differing opinions and feedback of all the various (committee) members,” Brewster says. “If the goal of the RAC is to figure out what the industry’s most pressing research needs are, having differing backgrounds and feedback are what make our process so credible.” According to Shawn Brown, Vice President of Safety for Cargo Transporters, Inc., a truckload and dry van carrier based in Claremont, NC, and the current RAC Chairman, the RAC is where the rubber meets the road for developing transportation policy specific to trucking. “We’re the group that evaluates all the suggested research topics and narrows them down to five or six ideas that the ATRI staff will set forth in a full research report. I have been involved with the Institute for several years and am continually impressed by the diversity represented in our meetings and the subsequent outcomes.” As Chairman, Brown works closely with ATRI staff to give input on meeting logistics, serve as the facilitator of the RAC, and present research recommendations to the board of directors for final approval. “But make no mistake, the duties that I have (as Chairman) in no way compare to those of Rebecca and her talented staff,” he says. “They do the lion’s share of the work to plan, organize and set forth a successful meeting. More importantly, they carry out all the actual research.” One of the more recent research studies that Brewster is most proud of is the analysis on the impact of nuclear verdicts on the trucking industry. “In recent years, we learned from the industry that these verdicts have harmed so many organizations, but no one had done a deep dive into the issue to determine what were the causes and what sort of factors led to these jury decisions,” she says. continued on page 22